Welcome to the RaceDepartment Gran Turismo 5 Hot Lap Challenge. All you need to take part is a Playstation 3, a copy of Gran Turismo 5 and the desire to test your skills each week against your fellow RaceDepartment members.​

The format is simple, each week a car and track will be chosen to run hot laps. Starting Saturday 12pm GMT and finishing the following Saturday 12pm GMT you will be invited to submit your lap times for that challenge. Once the challenge deadline is met the the next track and car is chosen, this choice will alternate each week between the fastest driver and slowest driver, if no choice is made before 12PM GMT on Sunday the challenge organiser will make the choice.

To take part start up GT5 and select 'Arcade Mode' and then select 'Time Trial'. You will then select the track chosen for that weeks challenge and then the car. The car and track selection for each week will be listed below. Once you have done that you will be prompted to set the driving options. We will used a fixed format for each week which will be:​

Once you've selected that you can then start hot lapping. There are no tuning options so everyone runs the same setup. ​

GT5 will invalidate laps where the track is cut to gain an advantage, times shown in red in GT5 are invalid and will not count in this competition. To make it fair and competitive please don't cut the track or abuse the run off area's to gain an advantage, at least half the car should be on the track at all times and on street tracks don't use the barriers to give you an unfair advantage, the idea of the hot lap challenges is to run clean laps in the fastest time possible.​

Will the challenge be run through Arcade mode or through free practice in GT Mode? Is there a handling difference? GT Mode will obviously limit the car availability meaning some people might not have the right car to take part!

Premium

I believe online leaderboards for lap times were not included at the launch of the game (and was a glaring omission picked up by a host of reviews), but it seems they will be included when Kaz begins with his 'regular updates' for the game.

Yes that seems to be the case, in which case I'm thinking for now we run the hot laps under the arcade mode so the cars are available to all. This will have to be run on a trust basis for now, perhaps take a picture as proof if a lap is disputed. Stay tuned will post later with a car and track.

FounderStaffPremium

Lets the fun begin! It only seems fitting that with so many Top Gear fans here that we start with that track in our very own RD reasonably priced car. Challenge 1 will be the Suzuki Swift Sport '07 at The Top Gear Test Track.

At the moment times are not recorded online though I believe this is a feature to be enabled in a patch soon. For the timebeing please record a replay of your fastest lap in case any lap times are disputed.

The settings for each weeks challenge can be viewed in the first post of this thread.

Premium

Maybe auto-gears for those using the Dual-Shock controller, so at least its a bit of a leveller for them, not having the more precise control of a wheel, but having the freedom not having to cope with the anologue sticks and also shift gear.

There are, I'm sure, still those driving/racing on PS3's and XBOX's who still use controllers and not wheels, either through preference, space limitations or simply budget.

Or, are RD stipulating to be an active member of racing games here, console or PC, you must have a steering wheel?